HOMILY
2025 Lenten Deanery Holy Hour – Jubilee of Hope
Romans 5:1-8
What a blessing to be able to join with you tonight during this sacred season of Lent to pray in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and to reflect with you upon our lives as disciples of Jesus. I thank our host pastor, our Dean, my brother priests, deacons, sisters and so many of you from throughout this Deanery for your presence this evening. During our time together, may we also lift up to the Lord our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and pray for God’s healing grace in his life. Finally, I know that some of you are here for the monthly holy hour of prayer for an increase of vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life. We join you in that prayer.
This evening I’d like to reflect with you upon the great Jubilee Year of Hope that was inaugurated by Pope Francis just a few days after this past Christmas. Acknowledging Saint Paul’s words from his letter to the Romans, “Hope does not disappoint,” the Holy Father invited the entire Church to become “Pilgrims of Hope.” He prayed that during this year, “the light of Christian hope might illumine every man and woman, as a message of God’s love addressed to all,” and that “the Church might bear faithful witness to this message in every part of the world.”
Jubilee Years have their roots in Old Testament Jewish traditions. Every 50 years, a Jubilee would be proclaimed, servants were set free, debts were forgiven, and all people were welcomed to return to their own lands. In the Christian era, Jubilee years have been celebrated every 25 or 50 years as well as for extraordinary events in the life of the Church. During Jubilee years, the faithful are invited to seek reconciliation between adversaries, conversion through the reception of the Sacrament of Penance and a renewal of hope through one’s commitment to serve God with joy and in peace with our brothers and sisters.
In focusing our attention on the hope that is ours as disciples of Jesus, Pope Francis could not have been more attuned to the struggles that we confront in our lives. And why would I say this? Because of what you have said to me. In the midst of a world that has been turned upside down, I so often hear from you, “Bishop, we need something in our lives to give us hope!”
It seems fair to say that no virtue is more vital to our well-being than hope. Every one of us knows what it is to hope for something good to come our way, despite not knowing what the future may bring. We do it all the time! Yet, we are also quite familiar with the anxiety and apprehension that emerge from uncertainty about our future – that have the power to diminish hope and wound our spirits.
What do you hope for most – today? What’s your greatest hope right now? … Maybe it’s that your son or daughter gets accepted into the college of their choice. … Perhaps you lost your job, and you need to find a new one to care for your family. … I have no doubt that someone in this church tonight is facing serious health concerns – either their own or those of someone they love, and you hope for healing. … Maybe your hope is that your family will remain intact as you face uncertainty in our land these days. … Or that you can resolve the problems that you’re experiencing with your husband or your wife.
All these prayer and dreams and countless others are good and noble things. The difficulty, however, is that when we look at life through the lens of a world that measures everything by what we possess or want, by what we can see and touch and explain away, we can become frustrated, angry or discouraged when we’re compelled to face something in our lives that we did not expect or plan. And worst of all, we can feel as though life has overwhelmed us and God has let us down.
But despite what you’re feeling, our gathering here this evening is a sign that we believe there is more to pursue in life than what our world gauges as worthy of our hope. For Christians, hope is none of the things I just described. For Christians, “hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God.” Translated: hope is the belief that regardless of how our lives unfold, we believe that God walks with us and will lead us to eternal peace at the end of our journey. As such, this great Jubilee Year invites us to see life within the prism of a loving relationship with Jesus – the surest means to achieving lasting hope.
Sound a bit naïve? No! You see, for all our efforts to secure the fulfillment of our hopes and dreams through processes, plans and possessions, we’re never totally satisfied, are we? Our well-being can be shattered in an instant with an unexpected loss or disappointment. It is, in fact, our relationship with Jesus that alone endures and has the power to satisfy our deepest longings in life and to carry us through the darkest of nights to a place of light and peace.
Pope Francis spoke of that relationship in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, “nothing is more solid, profound, secure, meaningful and wisdom-filled than that initial proclamation” that “Jesus loves you; gave his life to save you; and now is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.” … For the disciple, my friends, a constant encounter with the passion, cross and resurrection of Jesus is the essential foundation for bringing a Christian notion of hope into our lives and our world.
In his letter to the Romans proclaimed a few moments ago, Saint Paul asserts that “hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:1-2, 5). Paul’s letter to the Romans marked a decisive turning point in his work of evangelization. While the Church of Rome was not founded by Paul, he felt compelled to hasten there to bring to everyone the Gospel of Jesus Christ – a message of hope that does not disappoint. What is so distinctive for Paul is that the “hope” for glory of which he speaks rests not upon human achievement but upon God’s saving action realized in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
The Word of God teaches us unequivocally that hope grows within our hearts not because of what we are able to do but because of the mercy of God – who first loved us. While such a radical assertion may confound our religious sensibilities, it is the very foundation of Saint Paul’s hope and his reason to boast – a boasting that is rooted solely in the grace and mercy of God. What a gift!
Yet, in proclaiming the Jubilee Year, Pope Francis has given us an image of the Church that points simultaneously to the hope that we seek amid the struggles we endure and also to the mercy we are challenged, in turn, to bestow upon others. “During this Holy Year, we are also called to be signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind. … Don’t underestimate,” the Holy Father goes on, the value of “a smile, a gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed, in the knowledge that, in the Spirit of Jesus, these can become, for those who receive them, rich seeds of hope.”
Let me share with you a story of someone who planted rich seeds of hope in my life. … My dad’s brother, my Uncle Ed, died in 1972, when I was 16 years old. He’d been sick for most of his adult life, contracting Multiple Sclerosis shortly after he was discharged from the military at the end of the Second World War and just months after he married my aunt. Despite the best medical treatment that was available fifty years ago, by the time my uncle died, he was confined to a wheelchair, he couldn’t see that well, he couldn’t feed himself and it was difficult for him to speak. His mind, however, was sharp and clear.
For all he had lost, from the possibility of having a family to a career to enjoying the simple pleasures in life that most of us so often take for granted, my uncle had wonderful opportunities despite having to navigate his world with a debilitating disease. He became a mascot of sorts for his beloved Boston Red Sox, throwing out the first ball during the seventh game of the 1967 World Series in which the Red Sox played the St. Louis Cardinals. And the highlight of his life was traveling in a wheelchair to Rome to meet Pope Paul VI just two years before his death – testimony of his deep faith.
Apart from these few pleasures, my uncle carried a cross the likes of which few of us could imagine. Yet, at a Mass celebrated in his home the year he died, my uncle planted seeds of hope which continue to grow some fifty years after his death. He was asked by his pastor, “Ed, if you had it to do all over again, how would you have liked to live your life?” All of us who were gathered around him went silent as we waited for his response. Without hesitation, my uncle responded, “I’d live my life in exactly the same way. God has been very good to me and has never let me down!” … With nothing left – no possessions that really mattered and fragile health that continually deteriorated, my uncle tapped the one thing in his life that he never lost: his relationship with Jesus.
So, where do you look to find your hope?
As we struggle to find our hope, isn’t it so often the case that the people who give us hope are the very individuals who have experienced significant suffering in their own lives. … They are the ones wise enough to embrace the consolation that flows from their relationship with Jesus and who have chosen not to wallow in self-pity but to impart consolation to others, even as they carry their own crosses.
We’re called by Jesus to be those people – to be instruments of his mercy and signs of hope for one another – for the poor and dispossessed – for the elderly – for the sick and suffering – for migrants and refugees – for the unborn – for young people and all who dream of a world at peace. We are called to be signs of hope for one another and, through the miracle of God among us, to discover the consolation that brings health and healing to our souls.
Recall the words that I shared with you earlier – words that we’ve all spoken at some point. “We need something in our lives to give us hope!” … That something, brothers and sisters, is actually a someone: Jesus – Jesus – who walks with us, who consoles us, who beckons us to be his hands and heart in providing hope to others, and who promises us life eternal as he carries us in this world to the next.
“Feeling hopeful,” Pope Francis shared, “does not mean to be optimistically naïve and ignore the tragedy humanity is facing. No – hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn’t dwell on the past, that does not simply get by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow. … And it can do so much, because a tiny flicker of light that feeds on our hope in Jesus is enough to shatter the shield of darkness.”
So, open your hearts, brothers and sisters, and give Jesus a place within them. He will not disappoint but will fulfill your deepest hopes! Amen!